Tattoos Interfere With Apple Watch Sensors
Wrist detection on the Apple Watch may not work properly for some people with lower-arm tattoos, as they appear to fool the device’s sensors, some early adopters of the device have said.
One owner noted in a Reddit post on Monday that when he wore his Watch on a wrist tattooed with black ink, he couldn’t receive any notifications, and the device would lock every time it went dark. Before trying to contact Apple, though, he tested the Watch against his unmarked hand, which suddenly allowed it to work as intended.
While I’d considered how a tatted up arm might play hell with Apple Watch’s heart rate monitor, I hadn’t thought about this aspect. As a security measure against both theft of device and bank account, I find the inability for the thoroughly inked to be thoroughly linked somewhat more distressing than them having to miss out on an accurate workout summary. (However, if Apple Watch ever achieves compatibility with Polar’s Bluetooth chest strap or similar, this minor problem can be mitigated down to nearly nothing.)
I just hope that somewhere out there, some particularly dedicated Apple fan got a life-sized Space Black Apple Watch tattooed across their wrist in anticipation (since they’re not getting that one any other way any time soon) and unwittingly kneecapped half the actual device in the process. That would be delightful.
If Apple Watch had an emotions sensor, do you think it could detect schadenfreude?
[Image via Reddit user guinne55fan]